


Day 24- Private Investigators

by Broken_Clover



Series: AU-gust [18]
Category: Guilty Gear
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Gen, Paranormal Investigators, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:14:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26701240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broken_Clover/pseuds/Broken_Clover
Summary: Zappa and Randy are paranormal detectives patiently waiting for their big break, but a mysterious disappearance might just be the break they're looking for.
Series: AU-gust [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860388
Kudos: 2





	Day 24- Private Investigators

The building was short and squat, slathered with a coat of peeling teal paint in a vain attempt to make up for its small presence. It hadn’t been designed to stand out in the first place. Its creation, smushed between a clean, modern dentist’s office and a mattress store, had been made out of a desire to create cheap commercial property to sell, rather than to have anything cohesively blend together.

In a last-ditch effort to make itself more notable, a wooden sign had been jammed into the small lawn, jutting out to passers-by like a hitchhiker trying to catch the attention of a trucker.

 _‘Spectre Freelance Detective Services’_ the sign read, printed in starkly cleaner paint, _‘Private eyes for hire, no job too bizarre.’_

“Y’really think we should have gone with the ‘no job too bizarre’ bit? I still think it makes us look like a couple of wackos.”

“It’s part of the brand. It makes us stand out. It’s all about defining the brand.”

“‘Brand’ my ass.” Randy kicked off one of the boxes under his desk with a toe, sending him into another lazy spin in the beat-up old chair. “For a ‘paranormal detective team,’ we sure as hell never get any paranormal cases. I guess maybe aside from that ‘demon dog’ thing, but I’m still 95% sure that was just a raccoon covered in tree sap.”

“It’s just how we get the name out there, Randy.” His partner was at least making himself a bit more useful, flipping through the monthly bills, glancing between documents and the raggedy blonde that sat on the other side of their rinky-dink office. “Businesses always start out rough, but I feel like we’ve started getting traction lately.”

“Traction. Yeah. The door handles almost aren’t collecting dust anymore.” Randy shook his head and climbed out of his seat. “Whatever. Hey, I’m gonna go grab lunch, what do ya want me to get you?”

“Where are you headed, Danny Missiles?”

“Bishop.”

“Ooh, they usually have that really yummy potato soup on tuesdays, mind picking some up for me?”

“Yeah, sure, mate.” Randy nodded, shrugging on his jacket. “Not buyin’ the bowl though, so you’ll have to eat it out of my hands.”

The other man scoffed. “Still not the worst date we’ve ever been on.”

“Oi. Hurtful.” Despite his words, Randy smirked as he ducked out, grabbing a ring of keys on the way. “Don’t throw any parties ‘till I get back!”

The small front lobby was, as it most often stood, occupied only by the dust on chair arms and the front desk. In the beginning, they had taken turns; one of them working in the back to manage paperwork, while the other stayed up front to greet any potential visitors. That trend had gradually petered off, with the rare straggler wandering into the building most often looking to just use their bathroom. Randy was bitter about the lack of success, and it showed more often than he would have liked. He was just happy he had Zappa around to try and keep spirits up, instead of the repeated cycle he had of enthusiastically picking up a new project, only to flounder, fail, and quit in frustration when it didn’t take off or go as smoothly as he wanted.

In his distraction, he didn’t notice the way he was weaving along the path towards the main block of stores that made up Illyria’s shopping district. That carelessness only occurred to him when he clipped into another pedestrian, to which he immediately dropped his wallet and screamed in a high-pitched tone that he would have been embarrassed to admit could have come out of his throat.

“F-fuck!” He shouted, his brain still trying to decide if he was startled or embarrassed. Randy scooped up his money and ran off in a panic. “Sorry!”

“Huh? That was odd…” The woman said, watching the strange man stumble-jog down the sidewalk. She thought for a moment about chasing after him and making sure everything was alright, but the feeling of a rumpled photograph in her hand urged her forward, perusing the storefronts until she spotted a tiny, squashed-looking building. Her free hand rubbed a forming bruise on her arm from where the man had run into her, hesitating for several moments before she was willing to grab onto the door and open it.

“Um, hello?” She asked, with the same amount of hesitance. There weren’t any people to witness her awkwardness, aside from an array of chairs that didn’t appear to match each other in any capacity. There was a desk up front, but no people sitting in it. “Hello?” She tried again, stepping up to the counter to see if there really was someone hiding behind it. “Is anyone there?”

Maybe this had been a mistake. Maybe she...no. No, she couldn’t just turn and leave. If the police still hadn’t found anything, then all she was doing was sitting and waiting for a bunch of bumbling fools to _just maybe_ get lucky. This might have been a bit unorthodox, but at this point, it was the best option she had left.

There was a single door across from the entrance, with a cracked _'Employees Only’_ sign emblazoned on it. When she turned the knob, it was unlocked. She let herself in.

The room on the other side of the door was not much bigger than the front lobby, but it appeared much more ‘lived-in.’ Piles of paperwork greeted her, shelves were piled high with books about UFO sightings, spectral manifestations, and cryptids, and tools were strewn between everything, tools she couldn’t begin to assume the purpose of. The sight of it unsettled her. But she finally managed to have some success, spotting a human-shaped figure reclined in a chair with a hat over their face.

“Excuse me?” She tried. “Hello! I’m sorry for stepping in, but I didn’t see anyone up front…”

Her words trailed off when she realized they weren’t responding. Reluctantly, she gave them a tap on the shoulder. “Hello?”

“GYAHHHH!”

It reminded of a trick her fiancé used to play, pretending to sleep in order to startle her whenever she got close enough. It was clear to her that she had genuinely surprised the stranger, though, considering the way that he proceeded to fall backwards in his chair, landing on the floor in an ungraceful pile of limbs.

“Ah- oh dear. Do you need help?”

“Ow.” Was her only response. The man rubbed his head, eyes unfocused as he rolled over and tried to climb to his knees. “Randy, don’t scare me like that…” When he finally noticed her, he gave the woman an odd look. “Oh. You’re not Randy.”

“Sorry about that.” She replied, helping the man to his feet. “I didn’t see anybody at the front desk, but I certainly didn’t intend to scare you like that.” 

He brushed his hair back in place and picked up his hat. “It’s alright, it happens. The bathroom is two doors down at the end of the hall, I keep telling Randy we should get a sign at this point-”

“Bathroom?” She tilted her head. “Oh, no, that’s not why I’m here.”

He now looked equally confused as she. “Need to borrow something to write with?”

“This is a paranormal detective agency, isn’t it?”

That seemed to get his attention. Zappa’s eyes went wide. “I- uh, um-” He scrambled for a clipboard, excitement half-hidden on his face. “Yes! That we are! What is it that you need?”

Glancing around for a moment, she pulled over a wheeled stool and sat on it. “I know this is a bit of a long shot. But my fiancé vanished almost two months ago, and the police haven’t been able to find anything.”

“Missing person?” The man across from her jotted a few words down. “Not something we get often” actually, they had never gotten it before, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t help. But you mentioned the paranormal, can I ask what makes you think that is involved?”

She bit her lip. “Because he didn’t run away. And he wasn’t kidnapped. No normal person could have abducted him.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I watched him disappear right in front of me, in a big burst of blue light in the middle of our living room.”

Nothing else was written down. He wasn’t even looking at the document. The woman interpreted his silent stare as disbelief, and moved to stand up. “I knew it. I knew it was pointless-”

“Ma’am, please, wait a second!” Zappa waved her down. “I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t believe you, I’ve just never heard of that phenomena before. Please, continue.”

She sighed, and sat back down. “It’s alright. I overreacted. But when I told what happened to the police, they thought I was completely insane. I swear I’m not making it up. We were watching the evening news. A little bit after 7:30, I remember it was only a few minutes, because I’d gotten up to get a drink during the first commercial break. But as soon as I came back to give him one, that odd light appeared, and he just vanished right into thin air!”

“I see, I see.” The page was slowly filling with notes. “Mysterious disappearance, blue light. Any other witnesses? Anyone nearby?”

“Just our pet corgi.” She shook her head. “I asked the neighbors if they saw anything- I was in shock for a while, I’d wondered if I had hallucinated something that hadn’t actually happened. The last time he’d spoken to anyone was when he helped the lady next door get her mail down when he came home. After that, nothing. Nobody’s heard from him. All of his things are still here, but no sign of him.”

Zappa wasn’t sure if he was uneasy or excited. This was already shaping up to be a difficult case, without much to go on- but it was paranormal, undoubtedly, and he was feeling eager to start hunting for clues. Hadn’t he told Randy? Their patience had finally paid off!

He tried not to appear too giddy in front of the poor woman. “My work partner will be back in a few minutes, I have a feeling he’d be eager to discuss this with you, as well. We’d be more than happy to help you, miss...ah…” Zappa glanced up from his paper. “Could I get your name for the records?”

“Saito.” She said, brushing back a lock of dark hair. “Saito Megumi.”


End file.
